Henry Price's Story Of Redemption Ends With Prison Term

Judge Unmoved By Convict's Pleas For Mercy

HARTFORD — Henry Price, a convicted murderer whose story of redemption convinced a prosecutor to advocate for his early release from a 40-year prison sentence, was back in court Tuesday looking for another sympathetic ear.

"I've made choices in my life and the consequences of those choices are why I'm standing here," Price, 64, told Superior Court Judge Joan K. Alexander.

Price was before Alexander as part of a plea agreement stemming from his arrest on promotion of prostitution charges in September. Prosecutors were seeking a seven-year prison term and 10 years of special parole.

Price was arrested with two women in September 2013 at the Ramada hotel on Roberts Street in East Hartford. One of the women told police that Price took pictures of her and advertised her services on escort service websites and took half of what she made.

"John Bailey, he would be spinning in his grave right now," Price said.

Bailey, a prosecutor who later became chief state's attorney, was instrumental in getting Price released from prison after serving time for the 1982 murder of a fellow drug dealer. He was convicted in 1984. While in prison, Price, who had more than a dozen felony convictions by the age of 32, earned his high school diploma and a two-year college degree. He also started a cultural affairs program, a family program and a closed-circuit news program.

After he went on work release in 1991, Price became a drug and alcohol counselor. He also served as director of the state's Alcohol and Drug Abuse Commission while still incarcerated at the old Morgan Street jail in Hartford.

In 1994 the state Board of Pardons and Paroles commuted his sentence and Price went on to make two unsuccessful runs for Hartford City Council. He worked as a program manager for the family reunification program of Community Partners in Action in Hartford and counseled ex-offenders, helping them get into drug treatment programs. He also served two terms as president of the Greater Hartford African American Alliance.

But in 1999 and 2000, Hartford police began investigating Price on allegations that he pressed women he met through his work as a prison counselor into working for him as prostitutes. Price accepted a plea deal in September 2002, admitting that he ran a prostitution ring, and asked for forgiveness from the women he had harmed and mercy from Judge Elliot N. Solomon. He was released in 2008 and was on probation at the time of his September arrest

"I know I did a lot of good things, but when you do bad things there's a cloud over you," Price said.

On Tuesday, Price was looking for more mercy from Alexander, citing his age and poor health.

"Not only is my freedom on the line, I know at 64 my life is on the line," said Price, who also asked the judge to take his wife, Rosalind Price, into consideration. She was also in the courtroom Tuesday.

"I'm not just asking for mercy for me but for my wife," he said. "She didn't do anything."

Price's attorney, Salvatore Bonanno, also cited the good things that his client had done and the long period of time between his murder conviction and the prostitution conviction in 2002.

Bonanno also downplayed Price's latest run-in with the law, saying his client "received money to allow these women to use his [computer]."

"If you look at the facts, my client is supposedly running this big scheme with $5 in his pocket," Bonanno said. "I don't believe being paid to post photos and paying for part of a [hotel] room is anything close to his previous behavior."

Bonanno also urged Alexander to sentence Price to less time in prison than prosecutors were seeking because of his age and health, while still imposing the 10-year special parole sentence.

"Is he a danger to the community? I don't think so, not at 64," Bonanno said.

Alexander was not moved by Price or Bonanno's arguments or pleas for mercy, saying that Price "turned a cold shoulder" to women he should have been helping and "perpetrated a fraud on this court, your wife and Mr. Bailey."

"I have a great concern that you would still take advantage of women in a desperate position," Alexander said, before sentencing Price to seven years in prison followed by 10 years of special parole.